Okay, I’ll admit it. After five years of my son refusing to wear anything other than sweatpants and bug/truck/animals-in-sunglasses t-shirts, I was thrilled when my daughter came along. Pretty much as soon as she was born, I was powerless against a ruffled legging or polka-dot pajamas. But it never occurred to me that in order to let the world know that my child was female, I should start glueing sparkly accessories to her head, as was the case for Katie Hydrick, the creator and CEO of Girlie Glue.

The “all-natural accessory glue” website describes how Hydrick “whipped up a batch” of her agave-based invention in her kitchen after becoming tired of “slippery uncomfortable headbands and bows.” “She began using her creation to stick bows on her babies. People constantly stopped her, asking where they could get some,” the site reads. “The rest is history.”

While some parents may love that they can now adhere accessories to their infants, Hydrick is also getting plenty of negative attention for the product, particularly its tagline: “It’s never too early to be Girlie.”

The glue, which sells about seven dollars and “washes off easily with water,” has been around for several years. But news of the product went viral on Twitter earlier this month, with many expressing outrage that parents would feel the need to glue hair bows on girls too young to have hair, as well as wondering why we must decorate our female children in order to proclaim their gender.

For the record, Hydrick told Good Housekeeping that Girlie Glue does not perpetuate gender stereotypes and can be used for such gender-neutral activities as adhering fake mustaches and attaching earrings to non-pierced ears. “Girlie Glue is in no way discriminatory towards boys, nor do we encourage gender stereotyping. These accusations are crazy,” she told the magazine. “We simply created and sell a product designed to make parents life a little easier. For those who want to add a bow to their child, this is a great, comfortable, simple way to do that! For those who do not, great, you don’t have to put a bow on your child.”

Emily Landes has a six-year-old, a toddler and a pretty severe sleep deficit.